About a month ago, I was given a sneak peek of a trailer for a new documentary on chile peppers by filmmaker Eric Raine. He had traveled to 26 cities in 4 countries to showcase a wide swath of subject matter concerning our favorite capsaicin-filled pods, which included the chile pepper heat horse race, chilehead culture in general, and the phenomenon of hot sauce shows.

Back then, I gave him feedback, which included my opinion that the trailer focused a bit too much on the drama surrounding the claims of Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper pepper being the world’d hottest chile. I personally have gotten out of the online (and offline) bickering about what pepper is the hottest. In fact, I think there is very little to no difference between most of these new “hotter” strains, and issued a chile eating challenge to anyone who is able to prove otherwise (and so far no one has been gutsy enough to take up the challenge). But I digress…

The trailer appears to be identical to the one I viewed back in June, with no less chile pepper drama removed or edited based on my suggestions. But that is not exactly indicative of what content is featured in the entirety of the movie documentary as a whole.

People Try The World’s Hottest Chili Pepper

Everybody’s jumping on the bandwagon to feature the most daring and the most extreme, even in the “general populace” world. The linkbait-heavy site Buzzfeed recently did a video of non-chileheads trying out the world’s hottest chile pepper, Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper, on video. When I first tried the Carolina Reaper on video three years ago, I definitely found that it was among the hottest things I’ve ever put in my mouth, so the burn felt by these test subjects were no doubt real and funnily painful. Enjoy!

Ashlynn’s Gourmet is a hot new sauce company based out of sunny Florida who makes an impressive array of “flavor enhancers”, including tapenades, hot sauce, barbecue sauce and basalmic glazes. Annthea and Mike, owners of Ashlynn’s, sent along this recipe for some island-inspired hot wings that encompass so many flavors and builds to an amazing heat crescendo.

Everything is not too overpowering, and the heat and flavor do the dance amazingly well in your mouth. This wing recipe uses two of Ashlynn Gourmet’s products (Hot Island Que BBQ Sauce and Kings Judgement Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce), along with fresh red onions, red peppers, pineapple and cilantro, try these spicy appetizers for yourself, and you might feel like you’re sitting in an island bar watching the relaxing blue waters of Bimini…

Listen Instantly!Your browser does not support the audio element.
Click Above to Listen to This Episode Now!

Episode #81 – Scotty O’Hotty Hot Sauces’ Scotty and Suzi Owens

Detroit pepper sauce makers Scotty and Suzi Owens of Scotty O’Hotty Hot Sauce join Scott for a chat about their rising new fiery foods company. Also, show sponsor Dan Arnold of Sucklebusters returns to tell Scott about several of his delicious new BBQ seasonings and sauces.

Chilehead Tees – Are you a heat freak? Whether you love hot sauce, chile peppers, buffalo wings, BBQ, bacon, or anything dealing with fiery & spicy foods, this is the place to get t-shirts and swag to show off your obsession.

Sucklebusters – Texas BBQ Rubs, BBQ Sauces & Texas GunPowder! SuckleBusters is preferred by competition BBQ Cooks, and has won numerous awards including back-to-back 1st Place sauce wins at the American Royal – the World series of BBQ competitions.

While as die-hard BBQers grill and smoke year ’round, many people kick off grilling season around Memorial Day weekend. Now’s the time to wipe off the grill, refresh your favorite dry rub recipe and invite the neighborhood over. While dogs, burgers, steaks and chicken on the grill reign supreme in the U.S., perhaps this year you’ll want to add some different flair to your fire. That got us thinking – how do people grill around the world?

We researched 10 of the most popular grilling methods around the globe, as well as what different countries love to grill most. So for your next block party, instead of buying grocery store franks, consider making your own custom recipe to invoke the flavors of Japanese yakitori or Mexican carne asada. Your barbecue will be out of this world – and have neighbors lining up for seconds.

There’s nothing quite like sitting the delicious, smoky, juicy flavor of a perfect barbecue, and we all know that the hours spent slaving away to get the taste of the sauce just right is all part of the process. The effort just makes the barbecue that much more delicious. But we can’t deny that, sometimes, we just want a good barbecue without as much effort, and constantly keeping track of temperatures can be quite the hassle.

Luckily for us, the smartphone revolution has paved the way for us to be able to experience hassle-free barbecuing. For years now, the idea of “the smart kitchen” has been circulating, but it wasn’t until recently that the technology really took off. According to the company that relaunched Free Bingo Hunter late last year, growth in mobile internet is among the fastest growing trends on the internet landscape to date, and this has resulted in nearly 2 billion people who use their smartphones for a variety of functions, including cooking and grilling…

QuikTrip, the American chain of convenience stores spanning a large part of both Southern border and Midwestern states, is one that I’ve been frequenting for more than 20 years. While everything they offer in one of their 700 national locations doesn’t please the guilty pleasure food maven in me, but they have enough in the munchies and drink areas that I never have to question whether or not they’ll have something for my early morning or late night cravings when I fill up for gas.

With little fanfare, QuikTrip introduced something unique back in April. This item I speak of is not only a good-intentioned attempt to have yet another “spicy” food item…but praise the Lord…one that chileheads will actually love!

These types of conversations are often fun to do, and this was no exception. I talk about my introduction into fiery foods, chile pepper myths, and where I think spicy foods in general are headed. Check it out!

Listen Instantly!Your browser does not support the audio element.
Click Above to Listen to This Episode Now!

Episode #80 – Dr. BBQ Ray Lampe Returns to Chat Barbecue

Ray Lampe, AKA Dr. BBQ, returns once again to The Firecast to chat about his new book, Flavorize: Great Marinades, Injections, Brines, Rubs, and Glazes, to talk about the BBQ Hall of Fame, if Guy Fieri is a true barbecue influence, and his barbecue video courses. Ken and Scott discuss how to add chile pepper spice to dessert items, and Scott explains why he won’t add recipes to the audio podcast.

Chilehead Tees – Are you a heat freak? Whether you love hot sauce, chile peppers, buffalo wings, BBQ, bacon, or anything dealing with fiery & spicy foods, this is the place to get t-shirts and swag to show off your obsession.

Sucklebusters – Texas BBQ Rubs, BBQ Sauces & Texas GunPowder! SuckleBusters is preferred by competition BBQ Cooks, and has won numerous awards including back-to-back 1st Place sauce wins at the American Royal – the World series of BBQ competitions.

As the weather warms up and grills begin to fire up, New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute wants to make sure backyard chefs are equipped to bring the heat. That’s why they are partnering with CaJohns Fiery Foods to unveil the newest in the Holy Jolokia collection, a spice rub specially designed for barbecue.

“The Holy Jolokia rub goes great with ribs,” said Adan Delval, a program specialist with the Chile Pepper Institute. “It is spicy but also sweet, giving meat a sweet and hot flavor. The best part is it is sodium free.”

A ginormous THANK YOU to everyone who has downloaded, listened to and subscribed to The Firecast Hot Sauce & BBQ Podcast! It’s a pure blast putting together the episodes and chatting with the coolest people in fiery foods and outdoor cooking; it is always fun, educational and inspirational. Because your support, The Firecast is now averaging over 10,000 downloads per episode, making it by far the top show of its kind on the internet covering our chile pepper-fueled passion! I am honored and humbled to have you all as…

As I have probably written many times, it’s probably useless to mention something along the lines of “spicy stuff” is invading every facet of the food industry. Duh. You already knew that.

What may be notable and relevant right now are the boundaries to which companies are crossing to bring in the heat freaks with their products. To give a fast food item a label of “ghost pepper” would have seemed incomprehensible as little as five years ago. Now in 2015, the number of major chains offering ghost pepper-titled options now require multiple hands to count them.

Wendy’s has had fiery sandwiches since the George W. Bush administration, but they have recently debuted their Jalapeño Fresco Spicy Chicken Sandwich and Ghost Pepper Fries.

Is there anything to be excited about here for chileheads? Well, read on…